YOUR QUESTION:

09/02/2019 17:49:50 Matthew Bianchini

Hey Trevor! It's so cool to see you interacting with fans and answering their inquiries, you don't see that a lot today. Anyway, I'm 13 and an aspiring musician. A few months ago I started this band called "Static Cling" which I formed after forming a relationship with some talented musicians that I met through music class (basically the band geeks). But we've had a bit of an issue -- Basically, everybody in the band has a hard time collaborating and does not want to share ideas with each other, making it harder to progress. I've tried to encourage them to be more open as songwriters and musicians, but it hasn't worked. I'm usually just met with a shrug or something lame. I know early on in Mr. Bungle's career the songwriting process was very collaborative, especially the first album. Do you have any advice as to what to do in this situation? Am I doing something wrong or do I just have to let time progress and maybe we'll gradually get more of a comradery going musically? I'm not sure. Anyway, keep being an awesome musician and inspiration to songwriters everywhere !

MY ANSWER:

Collaboration is a tricky thing and even Bungle had discrepancies and arguments; still does actually. I have a tendency to not be a collaborator which is why most of my tunes are written solely by me. It’s not for everyone. The other thing to keep in mind is that —and I like that you used this word yourself— collaborating is very much a relationship and with all relationships there is compromise. It is possible that you are in a non-compatible situation and may have to find others that are like-minded. One way that Bungle used to collaborate back in the day was to just jam together. Sitting in a room screwing around on riffs or melodies or whatever can lead to collective changes whether things are discussed verbally or not. Perhaps try improvising more — bring in a riff that you don’t know what to do with and just jam on it until someone finds the right direction. I would also exercise a lot of patience. Comradery can take time. Do you hang out together? Talk about the same movies, books, food?